Skip to main content
The Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association logoLink to The Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association
. 1994 Mar;38(1):11-24, 27.

Biomechanical studies of spinal manipulative therapy (SMT): quantifying the movements of vertebral bodies during SMT

Julianna Gál, Walter Herzog, Gregory Kawchuk, Phillip Conway, Yuan-Ting Zhang
PMCID: PMC2485097

Abstract

The relative movements between vertebral bodies T10 and T11, and T11 and T12 were measured during clinical-type SMTs to T11 in unembalmed post-rigor human cadavers, using embedded stainless steel bone pins and high speed cinematography. Significant relative movements between target and adjacent vertebrae occurred primarily in sagittal and axial rotation during the thrust phases of the SMTs. The relative positions of the vertebral bodies were compared at similar force levels, before and after the rapid thrust phases. The sagittal angles between T11 and T12 following the SMTs, were significantly different from their pre-thrust values. Two non-invasive methods (surface markers and uni-axial accelerometers) were compared to the invasive bone pins, in order to assess their suitability to accurately measure posterior-anterior translation. The results showed that both non-invasive techniques significantly underestimated the absolute movements of all vertebral bodies during the SMTs. The relative posterior-anterior translations using the non-invasive techniques however, were not significantly different from those determined from the bone pins.

Keywords: biomechanics, spinal manipulative therapy, SMT, vertebral movements

Full text

PDF
11

Images in this article

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Herzog W., Conway P. J., Kawchuk G. N., Zhang Y., Hasler E. M. Forces exerted during spinal manipulative therapy. Spine (Phila Pa 1976) 1993 Jul;18(9):1206–1212. doi: 10.1097/00007632-199307000-00014. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Tencer A. F., Ahmed A. M., Burke D. L. Some static mechanical properties of the lumbar intervertebral joint, intact and injured. J Biomech Eng. 1982 Aug;104(3):193–201. doi: 10.1115/1.3138348. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association are provided here courtesy of The Canadian Chiropractic Association

RESOURCES